NFL could sell rights to games to none traditional media partners

The NFL plans to hold talks with non-traditional media companies to potentially sell them the rights to a live game, NFL Media chief Hans Schroeder said.

Schroeder didn’t offer details on which companies could be interested in buying a live game, but the NFL sold a week one game to YouTube last season for about $100 million.

The NFL and its traditional media partners — Disney, Paramount Global, Comcast’s NBCUniversal and Amazon — will likely begin discussing a new media rights later this year, four years ahead of the current agreement’s opt-out clause, according to people familiar with the matter.

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/06/nfl-to-discuss-live-game-rights-with-new-media-partners.html

 

The slow death of legacy media continues.


If video killed the radio star, the web ended the video star.


I also don't expect legacy companies like NBC, CBS, ABC or even Fox (though a lesser extent) to last much longer. The NFL did an experiment earlier this season in having multiple of the top YouTube Football Creators livestream the first game of the NFL Season. There were some hiccups, namely on Tom Grossis part, but it was a success. Given how more authentic such personalities are, I expect the NFL to target more of these Creators to Live Stream to their Audience under NFL Guidelines.


There will have to be both procedures and protocols of course to follow as to who will be worthy of using the NFL License but the foundation is already there. Websites like Twitch, YouTube and others are the future. One more thing?!


Expect other sites like X and Rumble also to follow suit.